In various sports, such as baseball or tennis, there have machines in the past used to propel balls past the player to allow the player practice hitting the ball, e.g., with a bat or racquet, respectively. In a sport such as baseball, softball, or any sport requiring a ball to be hit by an object such as a bat, racquet, or other object, the key is that the user should make solid contact with the ball. This typically involves good eye-hand coordination, in which the hitter watches the ball as it approaches the hitter until the ball hits the object (e.g., bat) which is swung by the batter. For some people, this comes naturally, but for many, this skill can best be developed through practice. By increasing the number of practice swings at a moving ball, the individual can thereby improve his or her game.
In the past, in baseball, for example, such practice could be accomplished by having an individual throw a ball to the batter. Unfortunately, this requires at least two individuals, one to throw and one to hit. Therefore, there have been machines and devices utilized in the past which automatically throw a ball through a strike zone over a home plate past the batter. Such pitching machines have been in use for many, many years.
One disadvantage of such devices, however, is that such machines require a large area, since typically the pitching machine device throws the ball some distance to the batter. Therefore, the machine needs to be positioned at some distance away from the batter. Also, such machines require a large number of balls. Moreover, the batter typically needs to be enclosed in some kind of cage, so the balls can be easily retrieved once hit. Another disadvantage, is that the large number of balls must be continually somehow retrieved and reloaded into the pitching machine. Therefore, such pitching machine installations tend to be expensive, because they require a large area and costs of construction of the cage due to the high costs of real estate and maintenance. Thus, such prior art devices are typically prohibitively expensive for most consumers to have at their own home.
With respect to baseball in particular, prior art machines also have a further, disadvantage in that they typically are not able to throw various types of pitches such as may be thrown by a human pitcher to a batter in a game, such as sliders, curve balls, sinkers, and the like. Such pitches are thrown by a pitcher in a real baseball game to make the ball move in an unpredictable manner to cause the batter to miss the pitches. Typically, conventional pitching machines cannot throw such pitches, and therefore the batter does not get the benefit of the practice of attempting to hit balls which are moving unpredictably at the batter.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a hitting practice device which is portable, compact and takes up a relatively small area compared to conventional hitting machines.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a hitting practice machine which propels a ball past a hitter to allow the hitter to take practice swings hitting the ball.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a practice device which propels the ball past the hitter in a manner which allows the hitter to practice hitting various types of pitches in which the ball may move about with some unpredictability.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a hitting practice device in which the speed of the "pitches" of the ball past the batter can be varied.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a hitting practice device which is simple and convenient to use.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a hitting practice device which is economical in construction and reliable in use.